On Dogs and Joy #1

What's my starting point for joy? Where is joy grounded in a way that it can be founded on something that is unchanging? And that is what Paul's concern is here in chapter 3. A lot of things give us joy in life, but much of that joy is fleeting.

And depending on our circumstances, it can be pretty easy to go from feeling elated and happy to sad and depressed. But that need not be the case in the life of the believer. Thanks for joining us on the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm Bill Wright, and today we begin a series called, That I May Gain Christ, with a look at how having a proper understanding of the gospel can empower you to live a more joyful life. So Don, all through this series we're going to see that Jesus Christ not only saved us from our sins, he saved us from ourselves. That is to say, he saved us from our own so-called righteousness. Is that realization the reason that Paul speaks about joy throughout Philippians?

Well, Bill, I guess I'd approach the question in this way for the friends listening in today. My brother, sister, and Christ, I would say this to you. Joy is not found in your circumstances, and it certainly is not found in being a good person, because all of us stumble in many ways, the Bible says. Joy comes through faith in Jesus Christ and in believing his promise, his promise of eternal life for everyone who believes in him, his promise of faithfulness to those that are the true children of God. Joy comes from understanding that Jesus Christ has fulfilled all of God's righteous demands on your behalf, and that he covers you with his righteousness. And therefore, you stand complete before a holy God based on what Jesus Christ alone has done on your behalf. Now, he does this only for his children, and he has secured us throughout all of eternity.

All I can say is, what a gift! And we receive it not through what we do, but through receiving Christ personally and believing and resting in him. That's our glorious topic for today. Stay with us as we start this important series today on The Truth Pulpit.

Thanks, Don. And friend, let's join our teacher right now in The Truth Pulpit. The Christian life is meant to be marked by joy. The fruit of the Spirit is joy. Christ speaks of joy often in the Gospel of John.

And so let's just step back for a moment and just take a quick look in the mirror, you might say. Look into your spiritual mirror and ask yourself what the tone of your life is and what the tone of your heart and your attitude toward life is. Is it one of grumbling about your circumstances, whatever they may be?

Is it one of disputing and arguing and contention with others? Well, beloved, understand that that is not the mark of the Christian life. Genuine true Christians, it is true, can fall into that just as the Philippians did, but we are never intended to accept that as the dominant spirit in which we live. And if you find yourself grumbling, complaining, disputing, having contentions with people in your home, or just finding that characterizing the nature of life, you need the message that is being presented here by the Apostle Paul to wake up.

Hello, this is not what Christian life is supposed to be like. The fruit of the Spirit is not grumbling and disputing and complaining. It's something else, and with that recognition, to come humbly and teachably toward the text and say, what is it that God's Word would have for me that I need to take and implement over the course of time?

And let me just say this also, my friends. I don't mention this directly and explicitly often, but I think it underlies the nature of the way that this pulpit tries to teach. We are not looking for a hasty emotional response here today to the text. We're looking for an earnest interaction with what the theme is that you would meditate on over time and let it come to change your inner man, change who you are over time.

You know, it's easy to strike a match of emotion and toss it someplace and it goes out really quick. That should never be the goal of preaching, simply to generate an emotional response. Scripture tells us that we are transformed by the renewing of our mind, by continually meditating on the Word of God, seeing where it points us, and aiming our life direction accordingly.

And so there's a lot for us here in these coming verses throughout chapter 3, and this is the way that Paul introduces it to us. There is this theme of joy. Now, the question then becomes, what's my starting point for joy?

What do I do? What is it that I look to? What is joy built on so that it is standing on a firm foundation rather than simply the shifting sands of my passable and changeable emotions? Where is joy grounded in a way that it can be founded on something that is unchanging? And that is what Paul's concern is here in chapter 3. Now, most of us would be surprised to see where he goes with this, because Paul launches into a discussion about what the true gospel is. Remember, we talked about what the gospel is, and a false gospel undermines joy. And so we must have clarity on the source of our salvation in order to have joy. Now, look, with that said, look at chapter 3, verse 1 with me. Paul says, and this is kind of his transitional verse from chapter 2 to the rest of the letter, he says, finally, my brethren, he speaks to them kindly, lovingly, encouragingly, affirmingly. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

It's a command. This is not optional for the Christian life. This is a command that we are to obey. And he says this, he says, to write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard to you.

And there are different discussions about what Paul means when he talks about the same things, what is it that he's writing about. I think in the context of the letter, he is simply emphasizing the fact that I have been speaking about joy repeatedly already, and I'm going to talk about joy again right now. And to say the same thing, to call you to rejoice in the Lord is not a problem for me. You need the emphasis on joy to be a protection for your spiritual life.

You need the emphasis on joy to guide and to direct and to show you the path forward in your sanctification. You know, grumbling, angry, contentious people are not sanctified and may not even be genuine believers, but the absence of joy and the presence of this grumbling and disputing is a spiritual warning sign. It's a spiritual, if you can make a medical analogy, it's a spiritual cancer that requires treatment rather than letting it go untreated.

If cancer goes untreated, you know what happens to the body. If this grumbling spirit goes untreated, it is the same result spiritually. And so we need to forsake those things, Paul says, and so he's going to talk to them about the urgency of joy again in order that they don't miss the point.

This emphasis on joy is important for their spiritual protection. Now, what's going to happen right now, as we go to verse 2, is a sharp change in tone from what we've been seeing in the immediately prior context. He had spoken about Christ and his humiliation and his exaltation and the glorious themes of that. He had spoken about Timothy and his faithfulness and his love and his sacrifice.

Epaphroditus, the same thing, affirming Epaphroditus and his sacrifice and his service and commending him to the church at Philippi. And so there's all of this warmth and affirmation going on, and so you're going in one direction and suddenly it seems like he hits the brakes and turns real hard to go another direction. Look at chapter 3, verse 2. The prior warmth is now changing immediately so that, he says in chapter 3, verse 2, beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision. Now, all I'm pointing out to you right now is to just notice the change in tone from affirmation of men and encouraging people in joy. He says, rejoice in the Lord, which all of that seems consistent, but suddenly there's this sharp, dramatic change in tone and giving them warning right on the edge of having given them all of this affirmation and instruction in joy. Some people, more liberal commentators, wonder if Paul got distracted at this point, he went away from the letter and he came back and he forgot his train of thought so he picked up and started writing something else.

Even more liberal commentators will say, well, this is an indication that the letter wasn't written at the same time and somebody added something else. None of that's necessary and we don't need to go there in our thinking. There is a very obvious reason why Paul does what he does here.

And here's what I want you to watch and see, okay? This is what you need to understand, that joy is built on the foundation of the true gospel. What that means is, is that a false gospel is a threat to Christian joy in a way that may be not immediately apparent for those who think superficially about such things. But his prior warmth has now turned into a warning, almost without anything to prepare you for the changing in tone. But this prior warmth now turns into a contrast between the true and false gospel.

And that's what we need to see. Because your joy as a believer is premised on what the reality of the gospel is and how you are reconciled to a holy God. That is where joy comes from, is knowing that I am reconciled to God, I am accepted by God, he will receive me into heaven, and I know why that is and I know what my hope is. As Paul said in Timothy and as we sing in a hymn, I know whom I've believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed to him until that day.

That's where your joy comes from. But if you think your joy comes from anything other than the true gospel, then your joy is going to be polluted and eventually destroyed. And so what Paul does here in verses 2 and 3 is he gives us a contrast between the false gospel and the true gospel. And by way of that contrast, he warns us and protects us from the infiltration of false influences, and with the true he gives us that which reaffirms us in our joy.

So there's a contrast. We're going to see three marks of a false gospel in our first point, and then secondly we're going to see three marks of the true gospel. And through this we're going to gain discernment as a church, as individual believers, and for those of you who are not Christians, it is going to help you see the path forward.

There is a path that leads to death, there is a path that leads to life and heaven, and it is urgent for you to know which is which and to see them clearly from God's Word. And so let's consider first of all three marks of a false gospel as Paul gives it to us here in verse 2. Remember, he is protecting their joy by warning them of an imminent threat to it. So that he says there in verse 2, beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision. Notice just by way of a simple observation, three times in this one verse he tells them to beware. Look out, be on guard, watch for this, and do not let yourself be sucked into it. A false gospel is like a giant vacuum hose trying desperately to suck people into its realm and in its power, and it sucks people in, and you need to stay away from the initial attraction, the initial suction power of a false gospel.

You've got to stay completely away from it if you are going to be protected in your joy. And so this emphasis, three times beware, this emphatic repetition is showing us that he is making an earnest and a very serious warning that we are to take heed to. This is not optional. This is not an elective in Christian life. This is a required course in understanding. This is a mandatory assignment to take to heart and to take to bear and to recognize and to understand what's being said here. Now, the Apostle Paul often had to contend in his ministry against those who tried to impose Jewish requirements, Jewish ceremonial requirements upon Gentiles. He often was refuting those who wanted to require circumcision and who told Gentiles that they needed to be circumcised before they could be saved. There was a work, a preparatory work that they said that you had to do. You had to enter in through the Jewish way. You had to enter in through circumcision or you cannot be saved.

There was a work for you to be done. And so these Judaizers made the works of the law a condition of salvation. You can't be saved. You can't go directly to Christ in order to be saved. In other words, first you have to go to the guy with the scalpel and in submission to Jewish law do these things, do these works and then maybe Christ will receive you. Well, beloved, if that were true, then salvation is no longer by grace. It is something that you do, at least in part, in order to earn the favor of God. And you go to the scalpel and then you go to God and say, I've done what is necessary. Now you can accept me.

Now you must accept me because I've done what's been required. And there is this attitude of going to God in a sense of pride and having done what is necessary, which is totally contrary to the humble spirit of faith. Now look, that might, maybe for some of you, that may not sound to be like that big of a deal, but understand that the clarity and the distinction between a true and false gospel is at place and in play for something like that because it perverts the gospel. It tells somebody that there's something to do, which is contrary to faith. It tells them that there's something that they must do physically in their outer man in order to be saved.

And then it does something else. For people who think that there's a rule to keep and I've kept it, there is this sinister, evil poison in their heart called pride that says, I have done what is required. Now, God, you owe me, God, because I have done what is required. And that pride and reliance on self is directly contrary to the humility and reliance on Christ alone that is the source of joy. And we'll see this as we walk through Paul's threefold description of these false teachers. And this very brief warning in verse 2 helps us recognize, broadly speaking, helps us recognize broad principles that can help you recognize men who are presenting you with a false gospel.

And the issues really haven't changed all that much over the past 2,000 years. The outward form of it may be a little bit different, but the temptation, the call to works, to good behavior, to self-righteousness, to self-improvement, to morality as being that which earns you favor with God, it's all the same. It's all the same underlying principle. You do this and you get right with God. And that's a false gospel. And so let's see what is it that Paul says that can help us recognize a false gospel. There's three things here.

First of all, this is a subpoint here. So the marks of a false gospel, one of those marks is this, is a false gospel produces immorality. A false gospel produces immoral men. It produces immoral men. You can recognize a false gospel being taught by the man who teaches it in part by the fact that the man's immorality gives it away.

Now, look at what he says here, chapter 3, verse 2. He says, beware of the dogs. Now, for some of you, you think about dogs and you think about them as good pets that you want to have.

That's never been a problem in my thinking. But we tend to think about dogs in the modern day as pets, as domesticated animals and those animals that are companions for us in one way or another. That was not the image in the first century. In the first century, dogs were not pets, but they were unclean animals that often went about in packs and they were scavenger animals and aggressive animals against humans. One writer says this, a writer on manners and customs in the Bible, says this, that dogs, speaking about first century dogs, they bark fiercely at strangers that come their way.

In the evening, they are usually heard barking about the city. To call anybody a dog was to consider him very low down indeed, end quote. There are these aggressive, noisy dogs disrupting the peace.

Noisy, disruptive animals disrupting the peace. And Paul says that's what teachers of the false gospel are like. The Jews in that day used to call Gentiles dogs to insult them for their unclean ways because they weren't following the ceremonial requirements of the Jewish laws.

You're not doing what's right and therefore you're a dog. You're unclean because your life is not in accordance with the ceremonial requirements of our religion. So Jews were calling Gentiles that. Paul, who interestingly enough you'll see next time, Paul himself was very much a Jew. Paul turns that insult on these false teachers and he calls them dogs.

He calls these false Jewish teachers dogs and turns the insult against them. And the reason that they were unclean, the reason that these false teachers were corrupt was because of their pride and their spiritual deception that they were perpetrating on people. They were not pointing people to Christ and Christ alone. By grace and by grace alone, by faith and by faith alone, they were laying out requirements that had to be followed and calling people to follow them and their teaching rather than pointing them to Christ. That's a false gospel.

And so there was this great corruption in them. If you look back at Revelation chapter 22 verse 15, back toward the very end of the Bible, Christ himself looking forward to the halls of eternity and the halls of heaven here. Scripture says in Revelation 22 verse 14, he said, blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to enter to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside, outside the realm of heaven, outside the realm of truth, outside the true gospel is this, the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying. What I want you to see there is that dogs are associated with this gross immorality of deception, of fornication, of murder, of sorcery and demonic worship, loving and practicing lying. That's the association of a dog in Scripture.

It is associated with immorality. And this is a giveaway, this is a giveaway to recognize a false teacher so often they are marked by immorality in their personal lives, so often they manifest the very corruption, the very sinful enslavement in their own lives that salvation is designed to deliver men from. And so a man washed up in deception and corruption and immorality is a dog in the sense that Paul is using it here in the book of Philippians.

Indeed, a heart that truly belongs to God will be marked by a changed life. Well, friend, we hope this message has blessed you and that you'll join us again next time for more from The Truth Pulpit with Don Green and the second half of today's lesson. And remember to visit us at thetruthpulpit.com. There you can find out how to get Don's messages for free on CD. That's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright and we'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit.